Moulin Rouge! stage musical in development

If you can can can get a ticket, the musical spirit of Paris wants you in attendance.

A new musical adaptation of Baz Luhrmann’s blockbuster 2001 film Moulin Rouge! is currently in development for the stage. No timeline or location details have been set, but the creative team is partly assembled: Broadway wunderkind Alex Timbers (Rocky) will direct, with Tony winner John Logan (Red) penning the book.

Luhrmann issued a statement on the duo: “I first encountered Alex Timbers through the remarkable and inventive production of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and the brilliance of Here Lies Love. I immediately recognized the young director’s creative spirit and felt we shared similar sensibilities and instincts. So I’m tremendously happy to celebrate that Moulin Rouge! will be under his direction and that the book will be the creation of the gifted Tony Award-winning playwright John Logan whose writing I also admire deeply. It’s immensely gratifying to know that a new wave of artists will be leading Moulin Rouge! into its rightful theatrical realm.”

The announcement was made by Carmen Pavlovic, the CEO of Global Creatures, which is the theater company responsible for King Kong, Walking With Dinosaurs, How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular, and the upcoming Strictly Ballroom The Musical (another Luhrmann film adaptation, which premiered in Sydney in 2014).

Moulin Rouge! premiered in 2001 and went on to earn more than $179 million worldwide and scoop up eight Oscar nominations (winning two, for costumes and art direction-set decoration).

The story follows an ambitious young poet (Ewan McGregor, in the film cast) who falls hard for a courtesan named Satine (Nicole Kidman), the glamorous star of the Parisian cabaret, the Moulin Rouge. The film’s music pulled from anachronistic artists like The Beatles, Queen, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and David Bowie.